4And I shall unbridle you, and I shall put hooks into your jaws and bring you forth and all your army, horses and riders, all of them clothed in finery, a great assembly, with encompassing shield and buckler, all of them grasping swords.

And I shall unbridle you: [Heb. וְשּׁוֹבַבְתִּי.] I shall make you שׁוֹבָב a unbridled, backsliding, envoyzer in Old French, to unbridle. Whoever follows the dictates of his heart is called שּׁוֹבַב, as (Isa. 57:17): “for he went rebelliously (שּׁוֹבֵב) in the way of his heart.”

and I shall put hooks into your jaws: It is customary to lead out a beast with the hooks in its jaws because it does not want to go [voluntarily]. I, too, will put thoughts into your heart and an urge that will draw you from your land to come upon Israel.

5Persia, Cush, and Put are with them; all of them with buckler and helmet.

הפָּרַס כּוּשׁ וּפוּט אִתָּם כֻּלָּם מָגֵן וְכוֹבָע:

6Gomer and all its wings, the house of Togarmah, the utmost parts of the north and all its wings, many peoples with you.

Be prepared and make ready for yourself: Prepare yourself, and make ready for yourself an army of others.

be prepared: [as translated,] be prepared.

and you will be to them for a guardian: It is the custom of kings to pay attention, concerning their armies, to how they will march forth, and to appoint guards so that a destroyer should not come upon his army at night.

8From many days you will be remembered; at the end of the years you will come to a land [whose inhabitants] returned from the sword, gathered from many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, which had been continually laid waste, but it was liberated from the nations, and they all dwelt securely.

From many days past you will be remembered: From the many days past that you sinned against Me, you will now be remembered before Me, for [Me] to remember your iniquities and to pay you your recompense. And I shall entice you at the end of years into coming to the land of Israel, “returned from the sword” whose inhabitants returned from the exile wherein they had been exiled by the enemy’s sword.

which had been continually laid waste: these many years, and [only] shortly before your coming upon them, they returned.

but it was liberated from the nations: But you should have taken into consideration that it liberated from the nations, and He Who liberated it from the nations will not leave it in your hands.

9And you will ascend; like mist you will come; like a cloud to cover the earth you will be; you and all your wings and many peoples with you.

upon a land of open cities: [Heb. פְּרָזוֹת,] dwellers in villages without a wall, who trust in their might and are not [so] afraid as to gather into fortified cities. פְּרָזוֹת is like (Deut. 3:5): “in addition to the very many open cities (עָרֵי הַפְרָזִי),” without a wall.

I shall come: to the tranquil ones and see what they trust in.

12To take spoil and to plunder loot, to return your hand upon the resettled ruins and to a people gathered from nations, acquiring livestock and possessions, dwelling on the navel of the earth.

to return your hand upon the resettled ruins: To destroy a second time the cities that were in ruins until now, and now have been settled.

and to a people gathered: from peoples, who now acquire livestock and possessions.

on the navel of the earth: In the height and the strength of the earth, like the navel, which is in the center of a person and slopes downward from all its sides.

13Sheba and Dedan and merchants of Tarshish and all its magnates will say to you, "Are you coming to take spoil? Have you assembled your assembly to plunder loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take livestock and possessions, to take much spoil?"

and all its magnates: [Heb. כְּפִירֶיהָ,] shrewd merchants therein, who are accustomed to roam, like young lions (כְּפִירִים) , in all the countries and who know where the place of riches is.

Are you coming to take spoil: i.e., who told you the place of the riches? Did you know [for a fact] that you are going to a land full of spoil and loot, and that there you will really find powerful wealth?

14Therefore, prophesy, O son of man, and say to Gog, So said the Lord God: Surely on that day, when My people dwells securely, you will know.

16And you will ascend upon My people Israel like a cloud to cover the earth; at the end of days it will be, and I shall bring you upon My land in order that the nations recognize Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.

Are you he: In those days, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say, “Are you the one about whom I spoke in ancient days through My servants, the prophets of Israel, e.g. Ezekiel and Zechariah?” For he [Zechariah] too prophesied about the wars of Gog and Magog (Zech. 14:2): “And I will gather all the nations, etc.” Our Sages said (Sanh. 17a): Eldad and Medad they [also] prophesied about it. That is the שָּׁנִים stated here. Do not read שָּׁנִים, years, but שְּׁנַיִם, two. Two prophets prophesied one prophecy at one time (though not in the same style of expression).

18And it will come to pass on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, that My blazing indignation will flame in My nostrils.

a great noise: [Heb. רַעַשּׁ,] through noise and thunder, as he states.

20And at My presence, the fishes of the sea and the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth and all the men who are upon the surface of the earth shall quake, and all the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall to the ground.

and the cliffs shall fall: [Heb. הַמַּדְרִגוֹת.] I heard that they are perpendicular hanging rocks, which appear to be falling, but I say that they are mounds of the towers, for they dig around and cast up the earth in the center to raise the mound, and it is made into steps, eschelons, eschillons in Old French, steps, in order that the earth remain, and after it is pressed down well, they remove the forms that hold up the step.

21And I will call the sword against him upon all My mountains, says the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

And I will call the sword against him upon all My mountains: for the sword to come upon them, against him. “And I will call” means, I will prepare. And what is the sword that I will call against him? Their own sword: “every man’s sword shall be against his brother.”

22And I will judge against him with pestilence and with blood, and rain bringing floods, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone will I rain down upon him and upon his hordes and upon the many peoples that are with him.

and great hailstones: Hailstones that glisten like precious stones named גָּבִישּׁ, crystal, as the matter is stated (Job 28:18): “Coral and crystal (וְגָּבִישּׁ).” Our Sages said (Ber. 54b): עַל גַב אִישּׁ : Hailstones that started to fall on Egypt, and stood in the air over the man (עַל גַב אִישּׁ), Moses, who prayed that they not fall, as the matter that is stated (Exod. 9:33), לֹא נִתַּ אַרְצָה“[it] did not reach the ground.”

23And I will reveal Myself in My greatness and in My holiness and will be recognized in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord.